Aftermath
Sequel to Digital Deception
Part 1: Lost Love, Found Family
(Sora's Story)
It was over. The final battle was over and the digital world was at peace again. It's safety lay in the hands of a new generation of digidestined, under the advisement of the older teens. Yet, they still carried the scars. Their lives had all change in dramatic ways, especially 17 year old Sora Takenouchi who had lost her true love but rediscovered the family she always had. This is her story…
The day was cloudy, frigid and dreary and an icy wind blew through the reddish hair of Sora Takenouchi as she sat in solitude on the empty beach. The weather mirrored her emotions perfectly. She stared out the vast ocean feeling as dark and dismal as her surroundings. She stretched out on the sand and closed her eyes. Pictures flashed before her. Memories of a time long ago when she knew how to smile and when she had something to live for. Images of a handsome, smiling, brown-eyed young man made her heart wrench in pain. The young man was Taichi Kamiya. Her Taichi. The one person she loved more than anything in the world. The one part of her life that made her happy. Yet that was all gone now. Tai was gone, betrayed and murdered by someone he though was his friend and teammate.
Sora felt like she could never be happy again. Tai had been her whole world. It was from him that she learned what love and friendship really meant. They had been best friends since pre-school and had fallen in love in their early teenage years. Now that he was gone, Sora hit an emotional low. She had no one tho confide her feelings in, no one to be there when she needed a shoulder to cry on, no one to love her. Sure, she had a mother who supposedly loved her but her home life wasn't the best. She and her mom constantly fought and could never quite see eye to eye on things. This just pulled her father into this dark depression.
As she sat there alone on the desolate beach, Sora's mind played old memories over and over again. These memories showed Sora at her happiest. She and Tai on their first date, their first kiss, the time she had a crush on Matt for a week or so only to wake up and realize she was head over heels for Tai.
One memory seemed to stick out in her head. It ran over and over again like a detailed movie. A clear, star-filled night, two figures silhouetted by the moonlight…it all came rushing back. Sora saw Tai pull a younger version of herself into his arms, brush a stray strand of hair out of her eyes then whisper "I love you" to her for the first time in the four month relationship. That was the first time Sora felt at peace with the world. Those three words from Tai had made all her troubles disappear and had made her life worth living. Now it seemed she had no real purpose in life.
Sora was so deep in thought she didn't notice it had started to rain until she opened her eyes. She stood up, wiped the water from her face with her shirtsleeve, then grabbed her backpack and headed home. She reached her apartment before the storm really hit, but was still soaked. Nonetheless, her mom jumped on her the second she walked in.
"Sora!"
"Yeah?"
"Do you know what time it is?"
Sora looked at her watch. "4:32"
"And what time did I tell you to be home?"
"4:30. So I'm two minutes late. No big deal."
"It doesn't matter, you're still late. And why are you wet?"
"It's raining."
"Oh. Well, the kitchen still isn't clean and neither is your room."
"I told you I'd do when I got home. I'm home now and I plan to do it."
"I work hard all day and I expect to come home to a clean house and a clean daughter!"
"Well pardon me, queen of the universe! Since when does the world revolve around you?"
"Since when does it revolve around you! You've been off all day doing who knows what with those friends of yours!"
"If you haven't noticed, I haven't got any friends anymore!"
"What about what's-his-name, Tai. Your boyfriend. I bet you're-"
"Mom! Tai died!"
"Or so you say!"
"Why can't you be more sensitive? You have no clue what's going on in my life, so you have no right to make accusations like that! You just don't understand me! You can't take your anger about life out on me just because I'm here! I have enough problems of my own!"
"Sora-"
Sora cut her mom off and continued. "If you really cared about me, you'd take a little time out of your life to get to know me. Then you'd know how much I loved Tai, how much I miss him and how my life is nothing bu a jumble of dark days filled with depression!"
"I don't care how screwed up your life is, you still have no right to talk to me like that! I work hard all day only to come home to a depressed mess of a daughter who can't get over a boy!"
"That's it! I can't take it anymore! I'm out of here!"
Sora grabbed her backpack and headed for the door.
"Where are you going?"
"Dunno. Anywhere but here." With that Sora stormed out the door, leaving her mother thunderstruck.
The rain was coming down in sheets by now and Sora wandered aimlessly down the streets, cold, wet and confused. She was splashed by passing cars and the rainwater mixed with the tears already running down her face.
"Suicide," she thought. "That's the only way out of all this. I've just got to end it all. Tai's gone, my mom doesn't care…no one'll miss me. I know there's a bridge somewhere around here…" She took off, her sneakers splashing in water as she ran.
Sora stopped abruptly a few minutes later in front of an apartment building. She had noticed a light left on outside an apartment on the third floor. She recognized the building immediately and soon found herself on the doorstep if that apartment.
This apartment was very familiar to her. The flowers, the doormat and especially the worn brass nameplate on the door that read "Kamiya" in shining letters.
"Tai's old apartment…" she thought. "How's I end up here? What'll his family say when they see me…"
Sora rang the doorbell and a second later the door was opened by Mrs. Kamiya. She took one look at Sora and said, "Sora! Sora, what's wrong sweetie?"
Sora's voice was shaking as she answered, "I….I-I had a fight with my mom…can't o home…I-I…" she burst into tears and was unable to finish.
Mrs. Kamiya pulled her inside and hugged her. "It's ok, Sora. You poor thing. Come on, let's get you a hot shower and dry clothes."
Twenty minutes later, Sora felt much better after she had a shower and was dry. "Thank you so much, Mrs. Kamiya. You don't know how much this means to me."
Mrs. Kamiya smiled warmly and replied, "It's no problem, dear. We consider you as much a part of the family as Kari. You can stay as long as you need to. You meant so much to Tai was he was alive, he wouldn't have wanted it any other way."
That night as Sora sat in the Kamiya's living room, she felt like she was home for the first time in years. She looked around the room and felt like she belonged. Mr. Kamiya was sitting in an easy, chair reading a newspaper, Kari, Tai's younger sister, was sitting next to her on the couch, lost in a novel. The thing that really caught Sora's eye was a table crowed with pictures of Tai. She noticed she was in several of the pictures and that made her feel even more comfortable.
